Life of a cassava merchant

MR Akeem Salami, Chief Executive Officer (CEO), Balkeem Nigeria Limited, an advertising practitioner, has defied the common thinking of most Nigerians about agriculture. He left his cosy job to seek fortune in food production. Today, he is a proud owner of a packaged garri product.

He started off with a career in advertising, but realised that what he really wanted was start his own business and be his own boss.

He has no regrets. Today, he has 25 employees and his product Jebulawa garri is doing well in the market. Because of this, Salami has become a force to reckon with in the food processing segment of the Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) sector.

Yet, his journey to success did not start in a day. He has seen some rough times but perseverance and tenacity of purpose saw him through.

For example, the National Agency for Food and Drugs Administration and Control (NAFDAC) rejected his business premises, saying it did not meet their specification for food production. The structure was pulled down. He had to look for money to build a new one.

He returned to the market when he received the nod of NAFDAC to ‘’go and sin no more’’. Since then, there was no looking back.

To him, feeding the local population with this basic foodstuff was his priority.

For a large proportion of the population, garri will continue to be the preferred food product for some years to come.

Salami practises agriculture with a difference.

“Our desire to venture into the production of refined packaged garri in commercial dimension is borne out of our genuine passion to tap into the on-going campaign by the government to grow the economy through locally made-in-Nigeria products benchmarked with international standards, while also creating employment opportunity for the abundant skilled manpower in the country,” he said.

Ijebulawa garri is a final product of a market research, which resulted into the production of a uniquely designed product pack that is water resistant, beautiful, inviting shelf-appeal, and cartooned for easy mobility, available in most super markets across Lagos and elsewhere at affordable price.